No time

Believe it or not, the idea for this project started in the autumn of 2012. Had this idea of an online magazine dedicated to promoting aspiring artists. Indie stuff. I had a small team, struggled to raise the funds needed, and then…

I failed.

I couldn’t find the time to write articles, I struggled to engage people like it happened on my main blog.

After a few months, I tried again. And again. And again at various points for the next few years. I changed platforms, I gave up on the idea of a digital magazine. Gave up on the idea of an app.

It is what it is.

Maybe this is good advice. Maybe this is important.

Knowing to fail. Expecting to fail, expecting that things don’t quite work out the first few times.

Because if you stare at my main blog, count all those followers and comments and likes and whatnot, you fail to grasp the idea… you know, those are just highlights.

Behind the scenes, there’s a far different picture.

Countless failures, petty frustrations, sleepless nights…

I had other ideas too: a website where I’d post a short story every week, as a way to promote my fiction writing. A website entitled “The Midnight Muse” where I’d post inspirational stuff, trying to be somewhat poetic, and a lot of quotes and such.

Prior to my WordPress adventure, I worked as an editor for a gaming magazine. That one failed after a year or so. After that, I wrote movie reviews for another magazine. That one is defunct now as well.

Notice a theme here?

You know that lots of folks use Thomas Edison and his 10,000 attempts at making the light bulb as an example. But it is accurate.

That is the mindset you must have. I’m not saying that starting a blog is useless or doomed to fail. On the contrary. I’m telling you to give it your all. But… it might fail.

And what you chose to do then will define you a lot more than what you would have done if it had succeeded.

Failure and success are not separate, are not opposites. Failure is an integral part of success. Failures are the stepping stones of success. It is just the way of life, the way of things… just take a look at the world around you, at a baby learning to walk. One failure after another until it learns how to properly put on foot in front of another without even having to think about it.

We grow up and we tend to forget this.

We tend to forget how many tries it took us to learn the things we now take for granted.

Somehow, we decide to clip our own wings, as if courage is such an expendable commodity these days.

Yes, courage. The guts to do it and do it and do it and fail and fail until the job gets done. Until you know how to do it, until you are so good at it that you can do it without even having to think about it.

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2 thoughts on “No time”

My goal for 2018 is to fail more. I’ve always been WAY uncomfortable with failure… and it’s really held me back from what I want to do with my life, from who I want to be. Thanks for the encouragement to strive toward even grander failures.